Mirador Software, Inc.
PC5200 Emulator V1.22 Release Notes
09/10/2015 CCR
This file contains a revision history of the product, and may include
information on new features and commands not present in the User's
Manual.
Changes with V1.22
For Windows version, added a "Secure Application" function in the file menu. This
function allows the user to password protect access to all menu settings, except
the print settings and the full screeen mode setting.
For Windows version, added a "Disable keyboard input" option in the options menu. This
option disables keyboard input to host and screen when the emulator is running in 5215 or
5217 emulation mode. (Keyboard input is still available in TTY mode.)
Changes with V1.21
Corrected a problem in the mouse code that appeared when using multiple
display channel windows: When windows are positioned on the desktop to the
left of the primary window (channel 1), those windows have negative
desktop coordinates. When such coordinates are passed to the Windows
mouse handler, they must be normalized to the mouse coordinate space,
which sees the extended desktop as having an original at the upper left
corner. Prior to this release, negative coordinates were not properly
handled when passed to the mouse event queue.
Added a 5219 parser, included in special builds. Added a Carroll Touch
IR touch screen emulator for use in special builds.
Changes with V1.20
Added support for PI Engr X-keys 84-key and 128-key USB keyboards for National Grid.
Added support for print to bmp output to My Documents for National Grid.
Fixed bug in macro in 52dspmgr.h that caused problems with ILINE and DLINE commands.
Fixed bug in report format for transmit line command (per Gould system in Mexico)
Added special code for LCC command for Gould system.
Changes with V1.19
Added test in startup code to prevent launching multiple instances
of the program, per request Doug Howe, National Grid. Running multiple
instances could cause contention for serial or TCP ports, since they
share the same registry settings for these resources. Affects Windows
version only.
Fixed a problem when using the mouse to move the Aydin operator cursor.
Under some conditions (receipt of LCC command from host, use of keyboard
to move cursor) the mouse position was getting out of sync with the
cursor position, causing cursor to occasionally jump to the mouse
position. (Windows version only)
Changed the way blinking characters are handled to better conform to
Aydin spec. (All versions.)
Added ability to assign actions to mouse buttons using .cfg file
(Windows version only)
Added parser for Aydin 5205 (special build option).
Some code cleanup and reorganization to accomodate
custom configurations more easily.
Changes with V1.18
Fixed bug in RPT command reported by AEP. Affects all versions.
Added deadman and keep-alive timer support. Added pckeyboard
configuration file support. Added softkey configuration file
support for the Honeywell version of the soft keyboard.
Release of a 4-window version of the product to support
simultaneous display of all 4 channels on 4 monitors.
Affects Windows version only.
Changes with V1.17
Added support for SEER character set. Changed naming of all character
sets. Affects all versions.
Added Full Screen display mode accessible from File Menu. ESC key to
return to windowed display mode. Command line switch -fullscreen may
be used to start PC5200 in fullscreen mode. In this case, ESC exits
the program and there is no access to the menus. This command line
switch should therefore be used only after correct menu settings
have been made and saved. Affects Windows version only.
Changes with V1.16
Added functions to support a user-editable configuration file for the
soft keyboard. A file called 'softkey.cfg', containing specifiers for
key colors and function key legends is now read by PC5200 at startup.
The configuration specified in the file is applied to the display of the
soft keyboard. Affects Windows version only.
Made additional changes to the handler for the Load Xmit Status mask
command, because the changes introduced in V1.15 did not correct the
problem (LSSR sequences missing from responses to XFORM, XLINE, etc.)
Affects Linux and Windows versions.
Changes with V1.15
Modified interpreter for Load Xmit Status Mask command. The sense of the
mask bits was wrong. Bit sense is '1' inhibits transmission of
attribute. Also changed the initial state of the mask register to
reflect correct bit sense. Bug reported by D. Howe, National Grid.
Affects both Windows and Linux versions.
Changes with V1.14
Modified command interpreter and display manager functions in preparation
for introduction of a multi-window version of the program.
Changes with V1.13
Fixed bug in handler for display of large characters. Bug reported by
Doug Howe, National Grid. Affects Windows and Linux versions.
Changes with V1.12
Modified interpreter for the Linear Repeat command to allow Load
Symbol Status Reg command as first argument. The possibility that
an LSSR command can be embedded in an LR command is proven despite the
fact that it is not documented by Aydin. Per bug report from Chuck
Cottle, Dominion Millstone.
Changes with V1.11
Changed mappings for XMIT keys on hard and soft keyboards to require use
of Shift to activate these keys. (Windows and Linux versions.)
Added NOR/ROT at beginning of reports transmitted in response to
commands XFC, XLINE, XFCLIN, XPAGE, XPPAGE, XFORM. (Windows and Linux.)
Added generation of TX-SOM interrupt preceeding transmission of reports in
response to XFC, XLINE, XFCLIN, XPAGE, XPPAGE, and XFORM. Added
generation of TX-EOM interrupt following transmission of these reports.
(Windows and Linux)
Changed format of report transmitted when a function key is pressed. In
the report, the function code was not preceeded by 0x1b as it should be.
(Windows and Linux versions.)
Corrected ordering of keys in 45-key function pad on soft keyboard.
(Windows version only)
Added generation of EOM interrupt following receipt of commands not
requiring response. (Windows and Linux)
Changes with V1.10
Fixed bug in interpreter for RINT command, reported by Chuck Cottle,
Dominion Millstone. (Windows and Linux)
Changes with V1.09
Added configuration option to control whether emulator
transmits interrupts to host. When host polls the emulator
interrupts can now be easily disabled. (Linux and Windows versions.)
Changed Windows serial code to implement non-blocking writes to host
serial port for improved performance when long reports are transmitted.
This change also corrects a bug that shows up when reports longer than
about 4096 bytes are transmitted. The Windows and Linux serial drivers
accept requests to write more than 4096 bytes and truncate without returning
an error. It is necessary to check returned "bytes_written" value
and loop while bytes_written is less than bytes requested. (Windows
and Linux versions.)
Changes with V1.08
Improved networking code. Affects Windows version only.
Changes with V1.07
Modified display manager to use the 256-color palette registers
in a more economical manner, freeing up some registers for custom use.
Changes with V1.06
Added support for internal alarms using beep or sound card.
Changes with V1.05
DOS version No Changes.
Windows version: Added soft keyboard. The keyboard is implemented as a
dialog window that can be invoked from the program's main menu (View-
>Soft Keyboard).
Changes with V1.04
DOS version: Fixed 52font.c to allow loading option character sets.
Fixed bug in 52setup.c that caused setup menus to have missing
characters when option character set selected.
Windows version: Grayed out Option character set selection in
options menu. This feature not yet fully implemented.
Changes with V1.03
DOS version: Fixed bug in display refresh timer that was responsible
for poor performance on slower PCs. Fixed a problem with the '6'
in the large fonts. Added code to insure the emulator setup is
implemented on a first run of the emulator before a setup file
is created.
Windows version: No changes.
Changes with V1.02
DOS version: Added optional support for PC keyboards by way of std BIOS
interrupt 16 calls, instead of by way of custom interrupt handlers
built in to the emulator. This option might be needed to run the
emulator on some hardware, for example on hardware that supports
only USB keyboards via legacy settings in BIOS. A section is added
to the 'pc5200.cfg' configuration file to allow the user to specify
the use of the std keyboard BIOS routines. Note that use of std
BIOS calls does not allow fully supporting a 122-key keyboard.
Windows version: Fixed some problems with fonts at some screen sizes.
Improved the appearance of the operator cursor at various screen sizes.
Fixed problem with the optional grey background window (invoked with
the '-bgwindow' command line switch).
Changes with V1.01
Windows version: First public release. Added support for printing
the screen in monochrome form or with black/white reversed.
DOS version only: Removed support for paced serial transmit (ported from
the Intecolor emulator and not needed for Aydin emulation). Removed
'HOST B' setup menu and renamed 'HOST A' setup menu to HOST menu;
removed code that supported simultaneous operation with two serial ports
active at the same time. This functionality is not required to support
the selection of two or more physical ports for host communication, as
required for Aydin 5217/19 emulation. This requirement is met with
a selectable com port on a single HOST menu. The second host menu was
overkill and an invitation to operational problems.
Changes with V1.00
Fixed bugs in handler functions for RPT (Repeat) and LR (Linear Repeat)
commands. The LR bugs were reported by United Space Alliance. In versions
prior to this one, the command parser consumed one too many characters
for each of these commands. Also, one too few characters was written to
the screen in response to LR.
In addition, added a switch to allow selection of blink to black instead
of the default blink to reverse video. This is required for United
Space Alliance 5219 operation.
Changes with V0.99
Implemented fast keyboard repeat and "Vert repeat" modes. Changed keyboard
mappings for PC Pause key accordingly. With NumLock Off, this key simulates
the Aydin "Fast Mode" key. Shifted, it sets keyboard repeat rate to 500 chars/sec
(actually, about 200 chars/sec in Windows version). Unshifted, it returns the
keyboard repeat rate to 10 chars/sec. With NumLock On, this key simulates the Aydin
"Vert Rpt" key. Shifted, it causes the cursor to move downward when the operator
enters data at the keyboard. Unshifted, it restores normal left to right cursor
movement.
Fixed problem in implementation of the LMMR command (load channel status
mask). Previous versions did not test for the large character bit in
the arg to this command or set the large char bit in the status mask.
Changed the handler for the 5217 specific command RFS (replay function
string.) A function string that has been stored in one of the 8 256-byte string
buffers (by SFS command) is recalled from storage and executed on
receipt of this command. Previously, the command handler could not deal
with string values representing multi-byte commands, and it especially
could not deal with recursive use of the RFS command (an RFS command
stored in a function string). Hopefully, it does now.
Changes with V0.98
Implemented data capture setup switch in DOS version of the program.
Changes with V0.97
Removed hard coded timeout for demo versions of the program.
Changes with V0.96
This is an initial Beta release of the product.